Gred Fiddes
Junior Project Manager I
In the spring of 2001 I joined TechFutures under the advisement of a friend who was enrolled in the program. I had no idea at the time the extent to which TechFutures would guide and mold me in the upcoming years. I came to the program having not used computers for much other than schoolwork and some basic gaming, but approached the program with an unparalleled thirst for knowledge.
I excelled in all classes while enrolled in the program and in the summer of 2002 was hired as an Entry Level Programmer. I was subsequently hired as a Teaching Assistant for Web Design and Beginning Database Classes. As I gained more experience and my knowledge of our projects as a programmer increased, so did my responsibility and contribution. After all that experience programming, it seemed only natural for me to take the Advanced Database class in spring of 2003 and I enjoyed learning about Oracle and PL/SQL.
In June of 2003 I graduated from El Cerrito High School and from TechFutures as one of two valedictorians. After some deliberation I decided to attend Cal State Hayward with the intention of continuing my education in computers. I continued to work for TechFutures through the summer and split my time between project work and the Intel Computer Clubhouse in Hayward. At the clubhouse I was out of my programming element, instead introducing kids to the wonders of Photoshop and helping keep the clubhouse computers and server virus free and up-to-date.
In addition to programming and working on projects, I was given the opportunity to teach the valuable skills I learned when in fall of 2004, TechFutures found itself short of Database Teachers. I was able to student teach part of the Beginning Database class at Kennedy and enjoyed every minute of the interaction with the students, watching them struggle and finally grasp the aspects of database that I had learned just a few short years earlier.
I am currently a sophomore at the recently renamed Cal State East Bay, previously Cal State Hayward, where I am planning to major in Computer Science. I am still unsure of what specific field I am most interested, but at the moment I am leaning toward software development. I am now a Junior Project Manager for TechFutures and look forward to every day of work; fixing issues, making updates, and creating additional features on our many projects as well as assigning work to current student workers and guiding the next generation of TechFutures stars.
Greg Fiddes
E-mail: gregf@tf.epals.com